


Connections

by casanovica



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Limb loss, M/M, Prosthetics, soft nines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-14 15:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16494998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casanovica/pseuds/casanovica
Summary: After an unfortunate standoff, Gavin looses a limb, but gains a connection.





	Connections

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a tweet that I couldn't get out of my head: https://twitter.com/Here4DaShips/status/1053796609199353856

Gavin Reed is reckless.

He dives headfirst into danger and never takes no for an answer. It’s one of the reasons RK900 fell in love with him. It’s one of the reasons why RK900 became a deviant. Because only the abrasiveness that is Gavin Reed could scratch its way through the thick red wall Cyberlife programmed into the android. He clawed his way into his code and into his life, and with his wild and brash nature, made him feel alive.

RK900 is calculating. 

He’s a supercomputer, he can’t help it. He is the result of a million different algorithms and protocols coming together in any given moment. He was created to compute paths of control and paths of terror. It’s what made his first few months in the newly revolutionized Detroit so confusing. He didn’t belong, even at the DPD, the corner that Markus and his followers shoved him when they decided he was a failure to the android race. He was built to comprehend a different world. He was not made to exist in the new one. 

Gavin showed him why that was more a blessing than a curse. He wasn’t made for this world either. His unfiltered thoughts spewing out at any given moment, his massive ego dominating his personality, and his complete lack of self preservation. It didn’t go with the flow. It wasn’t what society had agreed human beings should act like.

If he was being completely honest, it wasn’t what RK900 always wanted him to act like sometimes. Because as much as Gavin thrilled him, shook him to his core, he terrified him.

RK900 could never not be calculating like a computer, no matter how much he tried to help it. So with every reckless act Gavin committed, RK900 was greeted with a number, a probability of success, and its dark cousin, a probability of failure. The man managed to defy odds on many occasions, yet they both knew that one day Gavin’s luck would run out.

It did, as spectacularly as one might imagine.

Gavin was chasing a suspect in a warehouse when he was knocked to the ground. His gun slid across the floor and Gavin went to grab it when another suspect came from behind and knocked a piece of unstable machinery onto Gavin. He was able to scramble out of the way quick enough for it to avoid any vital organs, but RK900 will never be able to fully erase the agonizing scream that tore through his partner as his arm was crushed under two tons of metal.

He did not chase after the suspects, ignoring his mission prompts, instead choosing to hold a sobbing Gavin in his arms until the ambulance came. The DPD reluctantly stood by his choice to not pursue the assailants, and told them they could return to the case after Gavin’s recovery. 

Which, ended up being a lot longer than expected. The damage to Gavin’s arm was irreversible and beyond repair. The news that Gavin’s arm would be amputated was shocking at first. Gavin rejected the idea completely, even tried to tear the IV’s out from his veins and walk out of the hospital. The idea didn’t work very well with only one working arm and a cocktail of pain medication. He just fell asleep as he was insulting the doctor and the surgeon. 

Eventually, he agreed, having no other choice other than letting it rot off. The DPD agreed that they would cover the cost completely, insisting that they give Detective Reed the most advanced prosthetic available.

RK900 just wanted to see Gavin smile again. He was falling back into his old moods and his old habits. Becoming the depraved individual everyone had once despised. He even directed that snark at RK900 a few times, and as much as the android tried not to take him seriously, he was a little hurt by it. He himself didn’t want to fall back into the stoic, unfeeling programming he was created with. He wanted to feel; to be vulnerable and to be lovable. It was a hard time for the both of them.

Then came the day that Gavin’s prosthetic was to be installed. Installed, because it was to be modern piece, one fitting of a detective. It would have robotics and biotech that would communicate with the rest of his arm and interpret neural signals. RK900 was worried about how Gavin would feel about that, knowing his old conceptions of androids, of this type of technology. If this made him even angrier, he didn’t know how he’d be able to help him, or their relationship.

“Gavin.” RK900 breathed as he entered the room.

The sight shocked him a little, he didn’t know what he was expecting. Really, he should’ve expected more. He was built to expect, to understand outcomes better than anyone else. But this Gavin, the man sitting on the hospital bed in front of him, had never crossed his mind. 

It was Gavin as he had known him, with a sprinkling of Gavin as he had never considered before. 

Bruises and cuts littered his face, as they often do, and he was wrapped in a hospital gown, another commonplace in his life. But, attached below his right elbow was a case of metal, plastic, and wires resembling a human arm in shape. Gavin looked down at it as he flexed the fingers, adapting to the motion and the feeling. 

Gavin smiled at the android as he looked up, a synthetic skin covering the limb as he took his attention away from it. 

“Hey tincan, looks like we’re brothers now.” Gavin gave a small laugh at his own humor while waving at RK900 with his new prosthetic arm. 

He walked up to Gavin and kissed his forehead before taking the arm into his grip, scanning it. 

“You’re not kidding. The synthetic skin and internal bioprocessing components are Cyberlife patented. This arm is built almost like that of an android. This level of prosthetic has to be new technology. It’s not even in my records.”

RK900 was enamored, entranced by Gavin’s new arm. He picked it up, twisted it around, and examined all aspects of it before letting it rest on Gavin’s lap. 

“Yeah. The DPD spares no expense for its favorite detective. The nurse was telling me there’s blue blood in here and it communicates with like nerves and signals from my brain or some shit. It should become a part of me and my body’s ecosystem or something fancy like that. You know, when I said I wanted some android inside of me, I was imagining it would be much more kinky.”

He stroked the skin on Gavin’s new palm, far too unmarred and clean to really be Gavin. RK900 tried to get used to the unfamiliar sensation. 

“Can you feel this? As if it were your own hand?”

Gavin looked down and shrugged, intertwining his fingers with RK900’s and releasing them, exploring his new arm’s abilities and sensations. 

“It’s weird. Like my brain is registering the sensation and telling me it feels like what I remember it feeling like, but I can tell I’m not actually feeling it. Does that make sense?”

RK900 nodded, “Yes that is much like the way I process touch. My sensors tell me what the sensation is supposed to feel like, and my brain processes it as such. Not a bad thing. Just not what you might be used to.”

Gavin returned the nod and fell back into silence. RK900 took a moment to examine the man. He’d been through so much, not just in the past month, but in his entire life. He’d snuck past death multiple times, was practically on first name basis with the doctors and nurses at Detroit Mercy Hospital. Yet here he was again, unable to understand the nature of consequences. 

RK900 wanted to tell him a million things. Angry things, threatening things, things steeped in fear and regret. He wanted to tell Gavin to stop being reckless, to be more careful, to give description of his constant state of anxiety over him. He wanted to make Gavin understand. RK900 remembered who Gavin was at the beginning of their partnership. He was a raving mad child too busy suppressing pain in insults and dark humor to realize there was more to life thancigarettes and hate. He’d come so far, and RK900 wants him to understand how much he’s grown, how valuable he’s become to him. How he’s not done with him yet. RK900 hardly knew where to begin with this. 

Or, maybe he did. 

“Place your palm against my arm. I want to try something.”

His prosthetic was Cyberlife tech, so really it should function just as any other piece of Cyberlife tech would. 

Gavin awkwardly placed his new limb against RK900’s as if he were about to give him a handshake. RK900 fixed the position, grabbing a hold of Gavin’s forearm and allowing his synthetic skin to peel back before initiating an interface connection. 

Gavin furrowed his brows at the sensation, but ultimately connected, whether intentionally or not. 

Then, like a storm of water breaking through floodgates, he was hit by a wave of Gavin’s mind. It was pictures, images, sensations, feelings, thoughts, memories, dreams. It was ducking from a beer bottle thrown at his head. It was yelling at strangers and friends like, hurting all those in his path, hoping someone would listen. It was being bent and used in the dirty bathroom of an anonymous club, an attempt to feel something, failing. It was ideas of the human’s possible death, ones that were too detailed and thought out for RK’s liking. It was all too much, too quick for RK900 to comprehend. He released Gavin’s hand and severed the connection before he could steal any more from his head. 

If he needed to breathe, RK900 might have sworn that he was suffocating. He might have gasped for breath. 

Instead, he stood staring at the arm. 

Gavin’s human hand lifted to cup his jaw and raise his head. 

“Hey. Nines. You’re not glitching out on me are you? he asked nervously, “Did I do something wrong?”

He looked deep into Gavin’s stormy eyes. “Do you really feel that much pain?”

Gavin reached his flesh arm back to scratch at his head. “Not really. I mean having the hunk of metal fall on top of me was a new level of pain, but at some point it just became numb, like I stopped feeling it, I guess. It hardly hurts at all now.”

“No, not that. The emotional pain. It slipped in as we interfaced. I felt it. How… how do you feel that all the time and function at normal capacity? I was not aware a person could hurt like that. It took all my code to not force a reboot in response.” He said plainly. 

Gavin’s cheeks tinged red at the statement. “I, umm, I don’t know, really I guess, you just, you get used to it.” He stuttered out. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Look, you know I’m fucked up, Nines. That’s just kind of how it is.”

His thirium pump stuttered at Gavin’s acceptance, at his strength. “I’m sorry, Gavin. I’m sorry that you have to deal with that. You should not have to. That was pure agony. I wish I could help take the pain away-” but, Gavin cut him off before he could finish. 

“You do help. You break through that, you make me happy, so, so happy. And when I feel too much, when I’m about to say something dumb, or punch a guy in the face or something, you keep me grounded. You make me think twice. The stuff you saw, it’s not pretty. But, you make all that bullshit inside my head worth it.”

RK900 felt his face melt into a smile at the thought. He stuck his arm out again, presenting himself to Gavin. “Try to close your side of the connection this time. Focus on me, on my transmission. It is only fair I reveal a bit of myself after what you showed me. Even if that is the only thing I can give you in return.”

Gavin reached out his arm, more purposefully this time and prepared for the connection. He also was not ready for what he received.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, Gavin fell down into a rabbit hole of himself. It was like looking into a laptop, there were code and files and commands. But, the code was modified, the commands were broken, and the files were filled with… him. One folder was named “hex_color_codes” and had files like “sunset_Gavins_eyes” and “lust_Gavins_cheeks”. There were images of his smile, sorted lists of his favorite foods, and audio of the sound of his laugh. There were things that could not be quantified, as well. The sensation of Gavin scratching his nails against RK900’s back, the lull of having Gavin in his arms, the fear he felt as Gavin dove for the gun. There were incredibly detailed preconstructions of the future, of Gavin in his 80s, of the house they would buy, of them in tuxedos at their wedding. There was an aura that surrounded the transmission, a feeling of protection, of belonging, of love. Gavin could feel tears involuntarily welling up in his eyes at the abundance of it.

They hadn’t even broken connection before Gavin looked up at his boyfriend. “I never realized that was how you felt. You really… love me that much?”

The moment he dropped the connection, RK900 longed for it once more. To be fully connected to him, to be completely in his presence. 

“I am a fool if I have in any way led you to believe otherwise.”

“No, it wasn’t that I thought you were lying, I just,” Gavin huffed, at a loss for words, “it was a lot.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, looking at each other a tiny bit differently than before. 

“Hey, toaster.” Gavin called. “What’s the one thing you’d like to see or to do in the world?” He wears a sly smile at the thought.

RK900 contemplated. “I would like to see the ocean, maybe go swimming. It seems relaxing.”

Gavin stuck his arm out, skin peeled back. RK900 joined it with his own once more.

Then, he was presented with a memory. Gavin is at a beach in Hawaii. It is hot, RK900 can feel the sun burning on his back. The water is cool beneath his feet, lapping at his toes. Gavin walks forward, letting the water engulf him as he peaks his head below. Rocks, fossils, and tiny fish surround him. The water is glass clear and calm around him. He throws his body back up and wipes the salt from his eyes. RK900 can feel rivulets of water run down his spine. It was a good memory, it was from his early childhood, Gavin was happy then. 

Just as an experiment, RK900 expanded the scene. It’s still that beach in Hawaii, but Gavin is older, much like he is now, and the sun is setting. RK900 comes from the back and grabs him around his waist, resting his head on Gavin’s shoulder. Gavin sighs into the touch and allows himself to be held. The water is still cool and waves are still tickling their knees as they look down. Gold bands adorn their fingers. It’s their honeymoon. RK900 filled the connection with feelings of love, relaxation, and contentment. He felt Gavin send similar in return. 

“Thank you, Gavin. That was kind. I enjoyed it very much.” RK900 said after they spent a few more moments in the scene. 

“Thank Elijah Kamski,” Gavin replied, holding his arm up at eye level and reactivating his skin once more. “This thing’s pretty fuckin’ cool. I’m gonna miss my arm, obviously, I’ve lived my whole life with it, you know? But, this is a pretty good consolation prize.”

Gavin looked joyous, a good look on him. RK900 wished it to stain his features forever. 

“Yes, being able to be with you in this way is amazing in a way that I could not have anticipated.” He stepped between Gavin’s legs and placed his hands on his hips. “I wonder what else what we could possibly do with it.”

Gavin growled at the touch. “You horny computer, can’t even wait till we get home to have your way with me.”

RK900 tangled his fingers into his lover’s hair, kissing him softly before whispering into his ear, “The average Gavin Reed has one Cyberlife biocomponent in him. Would he like another one?”

“Yes, please.”The man replied, echoing the thought with a deep kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm at glittergavin on twitter if you'd like to trash talk cage or gossip about the dbh fandom's ocs


End file.
